Crucial Doubt
by Cari7
Summary: Angel and Gunn go after a werewolf... and get some things out in the open. Second Season.


**_Crucial Doubt_**

The werewolf had already killed two people before they had called him in.

The debate on kill or capture had been settled by the time he stepped into the lobby. Wesley filled him in as he watched Angel take a very old looking sword out of the weapon's cabinet.

"This werewolf apparently has no remorse for what it has done. Angel tracked it to its lair last night but it got away." Wesley said, unaware of the frown Angel aimed in his direction. "It's been saving the newspaper articles about its kills."

"The newspaper's report werewolf kills?" Gunn asked in surprise. "I gotta start getting the paper."

Wesley frowned. "Mysterious animal attacks." He said with a hint of that English superiority Gunn found so annoying. "The point is it's very aware of what it is and has no intention of seeking help. We brought you in because if we don't get it tonight, we won't have another chance for a month."

Gunn nodded grimly. "Sounds pretty cut and dry." he said, hefting his hubcap battle-ax.

"Let's go get it."

Yep, it had all seemed pretty routine in the brightly lit hotel lobby.

They tracked it to a park, and Gunn had been into the hunt. The excitement he felt was familiar. It was cautious but there was no fear in it.

But now, down under the city, it was a different story.

The wolf had gone into a drainage pipe and into the sewer. There, the team had split; Wesley and Cordelia had gone ahead to where Angel thought the monster might come to the surface.

Angel was practically an expert on the city's sewers so he had gone into the pipe.

The vampire had followed the werewolf, and Gunn had followed the vampire.

It was only then that Gunn realized he was scared.

_No reason not to be._ He told himself. _I'm in the sewer. It's dark. It smells bad. Real bad. And I'm chasing after a werewolf._

And my backup is a… 

He stared ahead at the black shadow that made up Angel.

"So say it." Angel said suddenly. The sound of his voice startled Gunn slightly and he tightened his grip on his ax.

"What?"

Angel stopped and turned to face him. In the dim light, his face looked like it was made of stone. His dark eyes were black holes.

"And my backup is a vampire. Or a damn vampire. Whatever. Oh, and, _you_ are _my_ backup. Which is why you're behind me."

Gunn closed his gaping mouth. "How the hell did you know what I was think…"

"Thinking is quiet. You were mumbling. A lot." Angel turned back and continued down the tunnel. "There is a fork up here." He said gesturing to his right. The meager light flashed off the silver bladed sword in his hand. "Watch your footing. And hey, you might want to try being quiet. Werewolves can hear you know."

Biting back a retort, Gunn slogged on through the muck.

The fear, he decided, was understandable, reasonable even. The werewolf they were after had attacked a jogger in the park above them. At least Gunn thought it was a jogger. His shoes were the only things left that were recognizable.

In all his years on the streets, fighting the evil things in the city, he'd never seen a werewolf.

Or someone who had been killed by one.

_Eaten._ A voice in his head whispered. _Eaten. The man was eaten. That's why you've never seen a werewolf- there has to be enough pieces left to turn into one. And the thing that did that is down here with you. And you came down here with… something even scarier._

"Hey, I'm behind you because I don't want my back to you." Gunn hissed.

"That so?" Angel continued forward. "That's a really bad attitude considering you work for me."

_Scarier because you don't know what he's capable of. Not really. Or maybe it's because you DO know what he's capable of. The werewolf, it's just a guy who got bit, infected. Maybe Wesley is right and it likes killing now but still..._

_Vampires…like Angel… They know what they're doing. They are…he is… calculating. Cop lady… she knows. I don't know all of what she knows, but she knows. Cordelia and Wesley, they know something too. A lot of something. They don't trust him, the way he's been acting. Whatever this Darla chick is about…_

"Work for you? I don't think so." he said, ignoring his head voice.

_No, they trust him. But they obviously think something is wrong. Then again, everything about Angel is wrong isn't it? By vamp standards anyway._

Gunn shook his head. That way of thinking only led in circles.

_Whatever. But __**I**__ certainly don't trust him_.

Then why was he down in a dark sewer with him?

" I'm my own boss. I thought we had that straight. I don't work for anyone, especially a…"

The sound was soft but definitely there. Gunn spun around.

The tunnel behind him seemed empty.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered.

There was no answer. Glancing back over his shoulder he saw that Angel had disappeared

"Angel?"

There was only silence.

"Angel!" he whispered, squinting into the darkness as if that would help him see the vampire that was no longer there.

"You know what your problem is?" Angel's voice was loud and clear and seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Angel!" Gunn hissed. "What the hell are you…"

"You think you know so much. You think you've got it all figured out."

Gunn put his back to the tunnel wall and raised his ax. Nothing moved.

"Not all of it." he said into the darkness. "Enough of it. I got the 411 on you. Your help the helpless thing is new. Not what you use to be."

"That's true." Angel's voice said from the darkness. The way it seemed to come from in front of him and behind him at the same time made the hair on Gunn's arms stand up.

"You have no idea what I was before." Angel continued. "The things I did… you can't even imagine."

"Nah man, that's where you're wrong," Gunn snarled. "I know what you and your kind are about. I know. I've seen it."

Angel laughed and it occurred to Gunn that he had never heard the vampire laugh before. The sound echoed, surrounding him and now the hair on the back of his neck stood up too.

"I've done things that make that jogger look like a shaving accident."

Gunn swallowed the bile that backed up in his throat. He stepped away from the wall and turned toward the fork in the tunnel. "Come out here you son of a bitch!" he shouted.

The roar came from behind him.

Gunn spun around and was face to face with the werewolf. It raised one clawed hand and snarled. The heat from its breath blasted his face. The stench of blood and death hit him like a blow.

"Oh shi…"

With a whimper, the wolf fell at his feet. The silver sword in it's back.

Angel pulled the blade free as the werewolf began to revert back to its human form.

"Nice work." Angel said as he cleaned the werewolf's blood from his blade.

"Nice… work?" Gunn managed to stammer.

Angel gestured at the body. "Yeh. Werewolf is dead. Nice work."

"I almost got killed!" Gunn shouted. "What the hell were you doing?"

Angel sheathed the sword. "Getting behind him. It took the left tunnel, which circles around. I think it was trying to get behind us so I just followed it."

Gunn stared at him. "So… I was what? Bait?"

Angel appeared to think about it. "No… more along the lines of a distraction."

"You son of a bitch!" Gunn raised his ax slightly.

"You already called me that once." Angel said dryly.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Gunn shouted, "We were supposed to do this together! As a…a…"

"Team?" Angel nodded his head. "Well, we sort of did. I kept you talking, you distracted the wolf, I killed it."

"That's not what I mean and you know it!"

"I know. But the kind of team you're talking about only works when everyone on the team trusts everyone else. You don't like me, I get that. But you have got to trust me."

"That ain't gonna happen." Gunn said before he could think about stopping himself. "You're a vampire. You do all your helping the helpless thing but then you go all wiggy over some chick from the bad old days… freaking out the people who _do_ trust you. And you pull crap like disappearing on me in the sewer, talking about how you've done so much more damage than hair ball here… You want me to trust you? Not gonna happen man."

Angel studied him for a moment.

"Good." he said finally.

Gunn's eyes widened. "What? Good?"

"Yeh. Wesley and Cordelia… they have a history with me. It's not all good but enough of it is that they really trust me. Sure, they've been… jumpy… because of all this stuff with Darla but they believe in me. They see the good in me even when the bad is there too. They are comfortable. In some ways, too comfortable, I think."

Angel looked away and Gunn heard the vampire sigh.

"You… don't know all of what I've done. You don't want to know all of what I've done. You see what I am now, and accept it. But you know enough of my past to accept that I could be a danger. I think the team needs that.

"So… I'm a… fail safe? You're gonna depend on me to kill you if you go bad?"

"Yes. Well at least try to anyway. I know you could at least make that decision. I don't know if they could." Angel turned and started back down the tunnel.

"You know," Gunn said after a moment. "It's when you say things like that I start to think that maybe… you might be all right."

Angel hesitated. "Yeh?"

Gunn continued past him. "Nah man. You're still a vamp."

The corner of Angel's mouth quirked up a little as he followed Gunn through the darkness.

"Well, as long as we understand each other." He said.


End file.
